The Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back in college football was created in 1986. It was conceived by former Oklahoma City talk show host Ed Sossen and W. Lynne Draper, the Jim Thorpe Association Executive Director, as a way to do something positive to promote Oklahoma. The award was immediately accepted as one of the nation's top collegiate sports honors.

This year I am pleased to report that I will be picking the Jim Thorpe Award player of the week each and every week this season and we will have a special page devoted to the Thorpe Award on the PhilSteele.com site weekly.

Here is the 2010 preseason watch list for the award. This watch list was determined by a committee of experts and we are very pleased at how the list has turned out. Some of the categories that the players were weighed on were not limited to how they expect to perform on the football field this year but also what they have done so far in their college careers. This includes several post-season and pre-season All-Conference and All-American lists. Finally, we considered their potential at the next level but talking to a several NFL draft experts who weighed in on the player’s strengths/weaknesses.

Keep in mind a player that is not on this list can still win the award as this list will be fluid throughout the season. In November the committee will meet to narrow the field to 10 or 12 semi-finalists they will meet again on the Monday before Thanksgiving to select the three finalists. The names of these finalists are submitted to a national panel of over 50 sports writers, sportscasters, former players and coaches who vote to determine the winner. The finalists are invited to ESPN's College Football Awards Show, broadcast in December from Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The winner is announced during the broadcast, but the official presentation of the award takes place in February, at a formal banquet in Oklahoma City.

As of right now these are the top 35 candidates that were selected by a committee of experts.